'Educating Essex'
Broadcaster: Channel 4
 

Educating Essex is an observational documentary set in a school environment. It follows the school life of GCSE students and teachers at Passmores School.


Each series consists of seven episodes and each episode focuses on different issues within the school, shown from both the students and teachers perspectives.


There are a range of different techniques used to give it a documentary feel. They use a number of interviews with the main characters in the episode, asking them their opinions on the issues shown at that current time. The interviewer is occasionally heard asking questions so its easy for the viewers to follow and understand what the characters are talking about. 
Another technique used is a fly on the wall camera approach. The characters never directly address the camera apart from in the interviews which helps to give the impression of observation.
The editing is very basic which creates a realistic approach. By using a range of different styles of fancy editing it could cause the behaviour to come across as staged, much like a drama.


The five minute part documentary that I am going to be producing is going to be similar to 'Educaing Essex'. The same focus will be on students in an educational environment. I will also be taking the observational type documentary approach but I will incorporate some different documentary techniques to those used in 'Educating Essex'.

Initial idea: Cocaine

Our first idea to document was going to be an expository documentary based on Cocaine.
We were planning on making it a factual documentary aimed at teenagers, informing about the dangers, effects and background of the drug. We were going to arrange interviews with social workers, people who have had experience with the drug and doctors to help make the documentary seem more professional. However, we thought it may be difficult to arrange such interviews and if we were to have someone impersonate them it would make the documentary seem very amateur. We also felt that it would take more time then we had to plan it and film it and so decided against this idea.

An example of the type of documentary we would have aimed to produce can be found here: http://www.channel4.com/programmes/cocaine/4od

'How the other half live'

Channel 4

'How the other half live' is a documentary showing  those living in poverty in Britain and those wealthier families in Britain. The aim of the documentary is to wake Britain up to the poverty right on our doorstep and the extreme differences between the life styles of families in the UK. It unites both the families and gives them a chance to explore the lifestyle of people on the extreme opposite end of the wealth scale.

The audience are positioned to feel sympathy for the family living in poverty. The documentary mainly focuses on this family, using visuals to emphasise their poor living conditions. For example, in one episode it shows their front door with over a dozen locks on for protection, teenage gangs hanging around outside the council flat and a scene of the police and an ambulance turning up outside to assist an injured drunk man, all of which is seen from the children's bedroom window.

It then contrasts the two different lifestyles by showing similar shots but in the wealthier families house. In this episode it shows the view from the wealthier child's bedroom of a huge garden. 

Each child also gives a tour of their house to show the extent to how different they're living conditions are.

Sound is also used to contrast the two family homes. When it shows shots of the families home living in poverty there is an emphasis on loud hustle and bustle outside and sirens whereas when it shows shots of the wealthy families home it enhances the sound of the birds and the silence and peacefulness outside.

"Reality TV has had a very bad effect on documentaries"

Article: 5th February 2012

The documentary 'Protecting Our Children', which is about a team of social workers dealing with sensitive cases, raised as many questions about responsible, meaningful film-making as it did about the rights and wrongs of the decisions made by social workers. It was almost shockingly nuanced compared to those TV offerings billed as "documentary" which offer very little more than voyeurism. The series has now sparked a debate about the future of the documentary. Are audiences now so used to documentaries with ironic voice overs that they prefer "staged reality" to morally complicated real-life stories?
Nick Broomfield said reality television was "like fast food - it's junk and rots people's brains." "Reality TV has had a very bad effect on documentaries."
Many believe 'Protecting Our Children' points to a revival of traditional film-making. Few documentaries like this even exist because they take so long to make and their outcome is unpredictable.
Sacha Mirzoeff, director of 'Protecting Our Children' said "Documentary-making is about being able to make open-ended stories."
'Protecting Our Children' drew an audience of 1.86m compared with 3.6m for the recent final of 'Celebrity Big Brother', this is seen as a small triumph for quality, non-fiction programming.
ITV had started to invest in documentary and in the end the audience will win and get the documentaries they deserve.

Our Crime: Attacked
BBC Three - 23rd April 2012

'Our Crime' is a series that has been broadcast on BBC Three, showing the consequences of youth crime today.


The episode 'Attacked' focused on stories of two different attacks that took place in south London. Both attacks lead to the death of the victims, of which were very different people.


One of the attacks was committed by a group of male youths aged between 14-16 years, who went around their town filming themselves assaulting innocent members of the public as a game of 'Happy Slapping'. They would then post these videos on line for others to see. However, one 'happy slapping' that went wrong ended with an innocent man being killed in public while standing outside his mosque with his granddaughter.


At the beginning of the documentary, a number of establishing shots are used to introduce the viewers to Tooting, south London which is where this crime took place.
As the story about the crime started to develop, CCTV footage of the incident and various other CCTV footage that the police used to identify the gang were shown. Clips that the gang had posted on line of other happy slappings were also shown in the documentary. By showing the audience this horrific footage, it strongly puts the point of the documentary across that crime in Britain needs to be stopped. It also helps the audience visually understand the extent to how serious and unprovoked the attacks were.

CCTV footage of attack on 'Our Crime: Attacked'

There were interviews with people who were associated with the attackers or the victim. One interview was with one of the attackers neighbours. She gave a background view as to what the attackers were like, to help the audience build a picture and opinion on them. There were also interviews with the victims step daughter and one of his friends who was there at the time of the attack. They helped to build a picture of what the victim was like and the consequences the attack has had on their lives. A metropolitan police officer was also interviewed, informing the audience of how crimes like this are dealt with.


The second story was about a gang rivalry attack on a young boy aged just 15. He was chased off the premiss of his school by a rival gang and then stabbed to death in a nearby garden. When broadcast on the news as an 'attack between 2 rival gangs', his family believed it portrayed him in the wrong light and as  much of a criminal as his attackers. However, in an interview with his sisters and brother, and teachers from his school, it was revealed that he was just a bubbly but naive teenage boy who was reeled in to becoming part of a gang, much like a number of young people in Britain today. The gang responsible for the death of the young boy had posted videos of them selves on YouTube, rapping and bragging about how they carry weapons and aren't afraid to use them to protect their territory. These videos were shown in the documentary so that the audience could paint a picture of what the gang were like.

Zak - The victim of the attack

Photos of the victim and archive footage are shown a number of times throughout the documentary to reveal his outgoing nature and help us sympathise and connect with him even though he has passed away.
CCTV footage of him being chased along a road moments before the attack and footage of the crime scene cornered off are shown to shock the audience and make them feel like they are present even though they're not.
At the end of this story, a montage of footage of the victim is shown to make the audience see that he was just an innocent young boy that shouldn't have been killed and to once again get the point of the documentary across that crime in Britain needs to be stopped.


For both the stories, when interviews are being shown, the interviewees are watching the same clip that the audience had just watched. This is effective because it shows their reactions to the same footage and helps you understand what they are experiencing when being connected to such a horrific crime.
The interviewees were used as voice overs and there was little interaction with the film maker apart from occasionally heard asking questions.
Tense music is played throughout most of the documentary to make the audience feel on edge, up until the actions of the crime have been mentioned or shown. The sound then goes silent apart from the interviewee talking which creates the sense of shock. The music then changes to more low toned and slow which creates a sad atmosphere.
For both stories it shows archive footage of news channels that have spoken about these attacks. This creates a sense of reality and demonstrates how serious crimes like this are.


Throughout the documentary, the view of how tragic Britain is becoming when it comes to youth crime is put across. The idea that both of these attacks were fuelled by social networking and internet rivalry, something that every one of us can relate to, makes the audience realise that its not just a TV programme and that it is a real life story that could happen to any one of us.